My social media accounts are showing signs of school starting with pictures of new backpacks, wish lists for our amazing teachers, and first day of school photos capturing the special moment.
Similar to these posts, I love the start of a new school year. As a child, it meant a new teacher, a classroom, and a carefully selected back-to-school outfit. I loved selecting my new box of crayons, markers, and pens, and looked forward to covering my books. (For those who are younger than I am, we were required to cover our textbooks with a carefully origami-folded paper grocery bag.)
Not everyone is excited. For some students school is hard. The work is hard. Making friends is hard. Learning to advocate for yourself is hard. Following directions and sitting for long periods of time is hard. And these are only a few of the reasons.
Students with disabilities have support to start the school year off well, but there are no guarantees. Parents have carefully planned for the future at IEP meetings. Yet, despite this planning and preparation, things may happen. There is no way to avoid the, well…unavoidable, surprise. Things may not go as planned. There may be services or supports not in place as everyone works through scheduling.
While everything may not go as planned. But…that means it is possible that things could go better than planned. Sometimes the greatest gifts are the unexpected ones. Days that I had an adult out sick or there was a sudden and unplanned schedule change could be stressful, but often I was surprised with good news. The student whose para was out demonstrated they were ready to be more independent. The schedule change showed me a better alternative to the one we were attached to as “routine.”
The same is true when there was a staffing change. I like knowing the collaborating teacher ahead of time, but often, the “new” teacher was exactly the person needed at that time.
As students begin a year of unknowns, I try to look at the good surprises rather than fear the ones I can not control. After all, you tend to find what you look for in life.
